Validated for Distance with Google

In the Summer of 2011 we faced a massive challenge. We identified a need to offer degrees by distance education for the academic year beginning September 2012, but our validating institution indicated that we did not have the infrastructure to do so. We needed a robust solution fast, but our own IT structures were crumbling and our IT contractors didn't seem to be making any progress on building what we needed in MS Sharepoint. I'll tell you how we did it all with Google Apps in a few months and what we learned along the way.